Songwriters Spotlight – Harry Glasson

Welcome to the latest in the series of weekly blog posts about songwriting, which includes interviews with composers and artists about their views and experiences in this field. This week’s interview is with Cornish singer-songwriter Harry Glasson, who has written an incredible wealth of songs.

Matt:

What is your background in songwriting and performing?

Harry:

I made an acoustic guitar in woodwork class at school, it was not great but it played. I joined the Merchant Navy and took the Guitar with me and swapped it for a transistor radio on leaving my first ship. A couple of years later I met and worked with a lad who has become a lifelong friend and fellow singer/songwriter Jonathon Ryan. He already had a Guitar so I got me one too, an EKO as I remember, like playing a railway sleeper with strings on. We performed at parties and later at the local pub and the performing just sort of grew from there.

Matt:

Everyone has different reasons for writing songs, sometimes to express themselves, to tell a story etc. What drives you to write a song and where do you get your inspiration from?

Harry:

From as far back as I can remember I have loved to read and as a kid I read anything and everything. I grew up the eldest of a family of eight my father was mainly on agricultural wages and liked a drink, so buying books, even borrowing books was not easy. So, I wrote things, little bits and pieces and enjoyed condensing these stories down into poems and eventually songs. Living here in Cornwall it is not difficult to get inspired as we have the history, the beauty, legend and culture at a fingers touch. The men have dug underground here since at least Roman times for the tin and copper. Sailors have navigated our miles of coastline, including the smuggling of contraband. We have the standing stones, stone circles and the villages of prehistory. The legends of King Arthur, Merlin, giants and piskys, all set in wonderful rugged landscape. Who can fail to be inspired?

Matt:

There are often differing views about songs, both on what the most important aspect is and what the most difficult element of a song to compose is. What do you think is the most important part of a song and do you struggle with a particular stage of composing?

Harry:

I think the most important part of a song is getting it real, truthful and as accurate as possible. I have usually found that the initial lines drawn from inspiration come easily, the hard work is fleshing out the story around them within the confines of the arrangement.

Matt:

You’ve composed a large collection of Folk songs about Cornwall, which have been performed and adopted by many artists, both Cornish and wider-a-field, including The Harry Glasson Project organised by Will Keating. It feels like these songs have become a significant part of Cornwall’s musical heritage. Where do you feel Cornish Folk music and perhaps Folk music in general is heading towards?

Harry:

I think it was Woody Guthrie who said, “as long as there are disasters, wrong doings and a man wants to woo a woman, there will always be folk music” and I do believe he was right. There has been a big resurgence in pub singing here in Cornwall this last few years which is a form of Folk music. Pub singing, people with a glass in hand singing unconducted, usually in three-part harmony. For some reason my songs have appealed to this form of singing especially and has carried over to the Guitar playing folk singing in the clubs. The Cornish music scene is vibrant these days.

Matt:

What projects and compositions are you working on at the moment?

Harry:

At the moment I am working on putting a song book together, it is in its infancy but a good start has been made. Will Keating is planning a new album for next year so we are getting together on that one too, some new material has been created but needs some honing and no release date has been set.

You can learn more about Harry’s beautiful songs by joining the Facebook page Harry (Safari) Glasson’s Music where you can see other musicians performing his songs and chat about his lyrics. His songs are also currently being performed by singer-songwriter Will Keating, who you can learn more about by visiting his website and Facebook page.